CAPRAROLA CASINO
Driving up the narrow, shady, main street of the small town of Caprarola, 40 miles north of Rome, and suddenly emerging into the light, to find the immense bulk of the pentagonal Palazzo Farnese rising up before you, is exciting; seeing its frescoed rooms, its grand spiral stair, its old dining loggia dedicated to Hercules, above the front door in the print, below left, with the elaborate stucco fountain and marble wine-cooling basin, above left, and its garden grotto, above right with working ‘rain’ and tufa-carved figures in its walls, is all amazing; but managing, as I finally did after 12 years and 7 visits, to see the upper garden with its Casino, in the top-left corner of the old sketch, below right: that, at least for an afternoon, is true happiness.
The palace was built 1559-74 by Vignola, on a 1520’s pentagonal fortress basement designed by Sangallo and Peruzzi. In 1584, its owner, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, had Giacomo del Duca design him a quiet retreat, a little house or casino in the woods above, its elaborate fountains originally with large Farnese lily crests, since removed. The cardinal died five years later, and the setting of the casino was altered by Girolamo Rainaldi for his Parma Farnese heirs in 1620, adding the grand, arched grottoes, above, flanking the famous water chain which carries the chilled stream, framed by stone dolphins raised up on pedestals, details below.
The water chain runs down from a giant vase, above, filled from cornucopia held casually across their backs by giant river gods. Small Farnese lilies top the walls beyond them. Between vase and casino, a broad terrace had simple ball-finials in the cardinal’s day, replaced in 1620 by the giant herms that still surround it, below. I suspect the whole garden was perfect before the 1620 alterations, better scaled, more subtle, sweet, natural and ingenious, more like Villa Lante – but then people can never resist an ‘improvement’, can they?
The details of the water-works are typically intricate and sophisticated, with water spouting from the mouths, nostrils and even ears, of masks, horses, dolphins and tritons, into vases descending the balustrade, above, of the stepped brick ramp leading to the upper terrace at the back of the casino, below, where yet more small fountains play. The central arches of the house were originally open to the breeze: a loggia where the cardinal doubtless sat with a sigh of relief at finally having a nice, shady spot to have a bit of lunch.
